Elderly Refugees Overwhelm Japan

Refugees, including 53 who were saved from a retirement home during the tsunami, take shelter Thursday.
Associated Press

By

Daisuke Wakabayashi,

Toko Sekiguchi And

Eric Bellman

Updated March 19, 2011 12:01 a.m. ET

ISHINOMAKI, Japan—Katsutaro Takahashi, 71, has been staying in a shelter at Katsuma Grade School since disaster struck his neighborhood in eastern Japan last week. The tsunami washed three cars and their passengers into the ground floor of his house, and swept away his diabetes medicine and his dentures.

He used to get a shot to control his diabetes every day, but the loss of the medicine so far hasn't been a problem—because he is hardly eating.

"This is much worse than World War II," he said as he looked over devastated Ishinomaki. "During the war, us kids were able to get away from the places that got bombed."

The aging of Japan's population is proving to be one of the signature challenges facing the relief effort in the wake of last week's killer quake and tsunami. More than 20% of Japan's population is 65 or over, making its population far older on average than most other countries'. The percentage of elderly in Japan's remote areas is about 30%. In many evacuation shelters, the elderly make up a large number of the residents.

With relief crews still struggling to reach hard-hit areas after last week's tsunami, the clock is ticking for the thousands of senior citizens who were already in fragile health before disaster struck.

One Week Since the Earthquake

Momoko Onodera prayed Friday as she mourned her husband who was killed in the tsunami. Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

As many as 15 or more elderly people have died as a result of being moved or due to a lack of medical supplies, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, and local media reports. Conditions are worsening in many evacuation centers due to ongoing shortages of food, medicine and heating, OCHA added, leaving the disaster's elderly survivors especially at risk.

"The biggest need is chronic disease treatments need to be restarted for elderly people," said Eric Ouannes, general director for Japan of Médecins Sans Frontières, the international medical humanitarian organization. "They have lost their drugs and prescriptions in the destruction," he said, and now don't have what they need to treat heart disease, diabetes and other conditions on top of any injuries or trauma from the natural disaster.

The mounting concerns about elderly victims come amid signs that more aid is starting to get through in at least some areas, though many deliveries of food and medicine were still being blocked or delayed by bad roads and inclement weather. The number of households without electricity dropped to about 375,000 from about 450,000 a day earlier, OCHA said. But Tokyo has held off asking for a wave of aid from international relief agencies. And supplies are slow to reach survivors.

In Minamisanriku, a fishing village of 17,000 people in Miyagi Prefecture along the northeastern coast of Japan, the evacuation centers were crammed with the elderly, who wrapped themselves in layers of blankets.

At the town's main evacuation center at the Bayside Super Arena, a sports and entertainment complex, the weightlifting room has been turned into an infirmary. Shortly after noon, the elderly started to line up outside for a 3:00 p.m. medical distribution. The line grew to several hundred people deep.

A lone doctor met with patients for about half a minute each and then prescribed medicine from about 12 different types laid out on a table. Once the doctor prescribed a drug, the patient would walk over to a nurse who dispensed the medicine. Unable to stand in line any longer, two older people were carried into the infirmary during the wait.

A sign on the door read: "Even if you take more than one pill to treat an issue, please understand that you will only get one."

Similar challenges were cropping up elsewhere. Many of the evacuees from the coastal prefectures of Fukushima and Miyagi have been fleeing to their western neighbor, Yamagata prefecture, where there was less damage. Yamagata City's sports stadium opened its doors to displaced residents on Wednesday, and now houses about 1,000 refugees who have lost their homes and were evacuated due to their proximity to the nuclear plants.

"We're just beginning to address the health issues for the elderly," said Yamagata City planning official Minoru Harada.

Just then, another official rushed in. "I'm so sorry to interrupt, but we have a situation," he said. "They've brought in an elderly woman, perhaps in her 80s, in a wheelchair and talking to herself. What do we do?"

"We're not equipped to handle dementia," Mr. Harada said. "Ask them to take her to the proper facilities." Mr. Harada turned and shrugged. "We just don't have the resources for such care."

Refugees from Minamisoma, a coastal town in Fukushima evacuated because of nuclear-radiation fears, say many residents chose to stay to take care of their aging parents.

"My husband refused to leave his mother," said 63-year-old Michie Kowata, who hasn't been able to contact her 63-year-old husband, who returned to their house after evacuation orders were issued. His 81-year-old mother, whose medical needs were unlikely to be met by the makeshift evacuation centers, insisted on staying, and her son returned to be with her. "I can only pray that they're all right," Ms. Kowata said.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.